Common Anti-Nausea Pill May Reduce Recurrence and Death in Aggressive Breast Cancers, Study

In breast cancer research, the search for effective treatments is constant. At times, the most promising candidates are not newly developed drugs but existing medications whose potential benefits have remained hidden in plain sight. A recent study suggests that a pill usually prescribed to calm queasy stomachs could also be helping women live longer, particularly those battling one of the most aggressive forms of the disease.The medication in question is aprepitant, a drug doctors have been doling out for years to keep chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting in check. But according to researchers from Monash University in Australia and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, this humble anti-nausea capsule could be pulling off an unexpected encore performance by lowering the risk of breast cancer returning and even cutting the risk of death.How the discovery unfoldedThe research team did not stumble across this by accident; they went digging through an impressive amount of data. They analysed the medical records of 13,811 Norwegian women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer between 2008 and 2020. Every single one had undergone chemotherapy, and all had been prescribed something to combat its stomach-churning side effects.When the numbers were crunched, aprepitant stood out. Women who took it had an 11 per cent lower chance of their cancer making an unwelcome comeback and a 17 per cent lower chance of dying from breast cancer over a decade. Other anti-nausea meds did not show the same life-saving magic.The triple negative twistThe story gets even more interesting when you zoom in on women with triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) — a subtype known for its aggression, fewer targeted treatments, and generally poorer prognosis. For this group, the benefits of aprepitant were even bigger. The study found a 34 per cent drop in recurrence and a 39 per cent drop in deaths linked to breast cancer.Dr Aeson Chang from the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, a senior author on the study, explains why this matters so much. Triple negative breast cancer does not give many treatment tools to work with. That is why finding new uses for safe, existing drugs could be a fast-track way to help patients.A drug repurposing opportunityRepurposing medications is not new; after all, sildenafil was once meant for chest pain before its other, more famous use took off. In this case, aprepitant has already cleared safety hurdles and been in use for years. That makes it an appealing candidate for rapid integration into cancer care, provided future research confirms its benefits.However, more work needs to be done before prescribing rules changes. Triple negative breast cancer is notoriously tough to treat. With around 3,000 new cases diagnosed annually in Australia alone, every potential new pathway matters. Researchers would like to see more studies to confirm if aprepitant really can prevent relapse and if so, we may need to rethink anti-nausea prescribing guidelines altogether.Beyond the guidelinesCurrently, aprepitant is only recommended for patients whose chemotherapy carries a high risk of causing nausea and vomiting. But nausea is a common visitor for most people going through systemic treatment; up to 60 per cent experience it. The study hints that more patients could benefit from aprepitant’s unexpected bonus effect.Dr Chang believes this opens the door to testing whether a wider rollout could improve survival rates. Aprepitant is usually taken during the first three days of chemotherapy. Now they are wondering, what if longer-term use made the benefits even bigger?The data detectivesThe team’s first author, Dr Edoardo Botteri, a pharmacoepidemiologist at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, says the large, population-based approach was key. Looking at such a big group over a long period gave them the first solid evidence of this potential connection. Where next?Before you rush to the pharmacy, here is the reality check. This study shows an association, not absolute proof of cause and effect. More clinical trials will be needed to see if aprepitant directly influences cancer biology or if the benefit comes from another, related factor.Still, the idea that a simple anti-nausea pill could be doing double duty is an enticing one. It is a reminder that in medicine, sometimes the best discoveries do not come from flashy new drugs but from looking again at what is already in our medicine cabinets.If future research backs it up, doctors might start prescribing it not just to soothe stomachs but also to boost survival odds, especially for those facing the toughest breast cancer battles.

Common Anti-Nausea Pill May Reduce Recurrence and Death in Aggressive Breast Cancers, Study

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